


Nothing ever grows in this rotting old hole (nothing’s ever worth the cost)

by HybrisAnaideia



Category: Dreaming of Sunshine - Silver Queen
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Dark, Betrayal, Gen, Ino does not appear in this fic but is Important as she is the instigator
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-05
Updated: 2019-11-05
Packaged: 2021-01-23 20:36:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21326302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HybrisAnaideia/pseuds/HybrisAnaideia
Summary: Caveat emptor, little kunoichi. There's no returning this.
Relationships: Nara Shikako & Yamanaka Ino (former)
Comments: 32
Kudos: 250
Collections: Heliocentrism — a Dreaming of Sunshine recursive collection





	Nothing ever grows in this rotting old hole (nothing’s ever worth the cost)

This wasn’t the plan. None of this was in the plan, because someone had _fucking betrayed her-_And now Shikako needed to figure out just what she was going to do. All within the few minutes before Inoichi would perform an involuntary mindwalk on her, because they suspected she was some sort of sleeper agent. Or that she might possibly be one, but who knows? She knows nothing.

It’s not like they actually said anything to her before they hauled her in for interrogation.

She told herself to get a grip, because there wasn’t the time to throw the screaming fit she wanted. The facts were simple. Inoichi was undoubtedly compromised by Danzo, she absolutely could not let Danzo know what she did, that she was under suspicion of being some sort of sleeper agent, and that…You didn’t come back from this kind of suspicion. Her career was going to be hobbled by this fucking incident, and Shikako knew this because she had seen Anko, knew why Mizuki was ripe for Orochimaru’s whispering.

She couldn’t afford to be hobbled; they were already running out of time. She needed Konoha’s resources that a trusted, valued shinobi got. If she ever gets her hands on who stabbed her in the back…She doesn’t know, but it’s going to be _just _as ruinous as this is for her.

The door opens, and she can feel the adrenaline flood her veins. Chakra rushes in from the open door, and she can pick out too many familiar signatures (where is the faith in her, she’s bled and died for-) in the observation room. A flat, low whine of white noise fills her ears as Inoichi slowly steps inside, and Shikako feels the threads of control

_s _

_ n _

_ a _

_ p._

She reaches for her chakra, shoving it through the stone recklessly, and the shadows devour her form like a nightmare made real. Shikako is now a fluid thing, flowing swiftly past a shocked Inoichi, escaping through cracks in the floors, gaps in the walls, in a fashion nothing three-dimensional could hope to copy. It’s reckless, heedless of the danger, and some part of her is screaming at her actions as she breaks into the sewer system.

But she’s not going to stop now. Shikako has committed to this course of action, because there was no way she was going to hand herself and her knowledge to Danzo on a silver platter. Fury and pain flood through veins she doesn’t have anymore as she emerges from cracks in the pipes, rising through the soil to find herself outside Konoha’s walls.

Anger settles in her soul, hollowing out her heart as she looks at her forfeited home, and then she sinks back into the earth. She’d been past the point of no return the moment she had been hauled in; this was just the closing act.

**Author's Note:**

> Product of another writing frenzy, this is a "Dreaming of Betrayal" spinoff, one that...Takes advantage of Shikako's suggested building explosion. The summary is MOSTLY directed at Ino but doubles for Ino&Shikako. Remember how Shikako was so frustrated that SHE had to be the adult, had to be responsible? I decided that for once, Shikako gave in and recklessly cut her losses in a fit of frustrated rage. She'll save them, but she won't be in Konoha for that.
> 
> There's a number of highly passive-aggressive scrolls that get back to Konoha via disturbed spies (they turn up in places where no one should have access, making it a double message) that pass along useful info, hints about upcoming turnpoints, and just blatant "This is a Akatsuki member, no I don't need to justify how I know this anymore." Shikako is becoming something of a globe-trotter as she dodges hunter-nin, ROOT, and all sorts of hostile shinobi; one scroll came from Water, only for the next to come from Spring. Shikako's growth pattern undergoes a radical revamp as she adjusts to being on the run, hiding, and so much more. She is almost permanently in shadow-state, and her skillset adjusts accordingly. The first thing she forces to work however is Shadow Clone, because she can't afford to avoid it anymore (it's a ugly fix but it Works and she's not rolling in options here.) 
> 
> Tsunade really, really wants to kill something over the whole fucking incident as the backhanded words *eventually* suggest that Shikako fled to prevent highly sensitive information falling into a compromised interrogator's hands. Kakashi is...There's not really words for it, but it is Bad. The whole situation in Konoha is Very Bad, and slowly getting worse. It reaches critical mass when Danzo exposes his cloven hoof, and MAN does...so much shit come to violent light.


End file.
